


Close Encounters

by runningwater



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, Im not really a writer, posting something old, prob wont be updated, this is a work in progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-06
Updated: 2017-02-06
Packaged: 2018-09-22 11:56:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9606596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/runningwater/pseuds/runningwater
Summary: So this is just a piece that I worked on last year, and maybe posting it here will spur me to finish it. This really doesn't have any direction, but any feedback is much appreciated!





	1. What in the World?

“Say you'll remember me, Standing in a nice dress, Staring at the sunset, babe” Madeline belted along, her spirits soared driving home from a cancelled swim practice on account of an incoming thunderstorm. “Red lips and rosy cheeks, Say you'll see me again, Even if it's just in your, Wildest dreams, ah-ha- AHHHHHHH” she finished on a screech.

  
The world slowed as a bright flash of light flooded her senses, causing her to shrink back and screw her eyes close. Thankfully her instincts had taken over, slamming her foot on the break to avoid any crashes from her blindness. The car skidded to a stop on the empty road.

  
Still shrunken in her seat, she experimentally blinked her eyes, attempting to rid of the massive black spots that swam in her vision. As her breathing and vision returned to normal, she glanced up at the sky to find all impeding storm clouds gone and the cold stars shining above. Dazed, she looks around for any sign of a lightning strike or the clouds where it might have come from. What else could it have been? Something that bright and sudden must have been a lightning strike, but there is no evidence of a burn mark in the road or surrounding brush. _Did it hit my car?_

  
She shook out her limbs, she reached for the car door, and opened it. She carefully set down her bare foot onto the pavement, stood and inspected her car. Not a single mark of a lightning strike. Turning to the sky again, she scanned the horizon, searching for any trace of the thunderstorm that got her out of practice. Not a single cloud, not even a puff.

  
_Odd._

  
Shrugging off the phenomenon, Madeline was just happy to be on her way home to complete the hours of chemistry homework that had been looming over her for the past few hours. Adjusting the towel wrapped around her torso, she slid back into the car, shifted back into drive and accelerated, leaving the mysterious scene behind.

  
Still too shaken by the temporary blindness, she turned down the radio and focused on the rest of the drive home.

  
Pulling into her driveway and turning her car off, she stalled getting out and sat in the silence that engulfed her. Her parents weren’t expecting her home for another hour, unaware of the almost thunderstorm that sent her back. Resting her head back on the seat, her eyes slid closed as she recounts the odd occurrence that just happened.

  
_A bright flash of light, that nearly made me crash, that possibly came out of a thunderstorm that no longer exists._ Even thinking about sent reminiscent spots to swim in her vision. _Enough, it’s behind you and there’s even a chance that you just made that all up._

  
Yanking her key out of her ignition, she snagged her phone from the console and swung the door open. Slamming it closed with a swing of the hips, she sauntered back a few steps to tug open the back door and grabbed her swim and school bag. Another swing of the hips shut the door and she locked her car.  
Staggering slightly from the weight and awkward position of her bags and now dragging pool towel, she slid past her parent’s two cars and maneuvered a hand free to twist the garage door open.

  
With her bags now nearly fallen off her body, she let them tumble inside and kicked them to the kitchen table.

  
“Hello!” she shouted, her customary announcement of her arrival home, expecting an acknowledgement of her presence. Silence greeted her ears, not even a scrabbling of claws on the floor or the humming of the fridge present in the house.

  
“Hello?” she tries again, a bit louder, slightly tinged with worry of the absence of noise. Turning the corner, she padded into the kitchen and found her mother standing at the stove preparing dinner. “Mum? I’m home?” she said to the figure of her mother, but again no response.

  
Madeline froze, knowing that one part of her mind is recognizing the shape of her mother but another part was trying to figure out why she wasn’t responding and why she was standing so still. Inhumanly still. She creeped closer, wary of any kind of response from her mother.

  
She extended out a slow hand to grip her mother’s shoulder. As her hand came to rest, she realized that her mother isn’t moving or even breathing. “Mum?!” Madeline tried again, harshly squeezing her mother’s shoulder, and then began to shake her.

  
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Frozen people tend to be a bit off balance” a clear, harsh voice said, the words drifting over her shoulder.

  
Dropping her hand, she whirled around with a gasp. Across the kitchen stood a tall figure, standing slightly in the shadow of the dining room. Hard, cold fear settled in a knot in her stomach.  
“W-w-who” she stopped, clearing her voice. “Who are you and what are you doing here?” she finally managed to gasp out. The figure across from her took a step in to the light, his pale gray eyes considering her question carefully. She griped her towel closer to her chest, not out of prudence but as a tangible object to ground her back to her body.

  
“I am Kalamiu and I have chosen your house as my base” he replied easily, but his words grated across her ears.

  
Shaking her head a bit, she gathered her courage. “Excuse you? Your ‘base’” she shot back, the fear in her stomach melting and then hardening into anger. “You want to just walk in here, _freeze_ my family and claim my home as your base? I don‘t think so.”

  
Faster than the human brain could comprehend, Kalamiu had crossed the kitchen and locked her wrists behind her back with some type of restraint. He then took two steps back to allow her to catch up with what had just happened. She was strong and fast from all the hours spent in the pool, but there was no way to get away from him or out of the restraints.

  
“Yes, I do think so. And if you want to talk to your family anytime soon, I would watch your tongue,” Kalamiu snapped back at her.

  
“How original,” she drawled, “what next, you’re going to give me an entire plan on how you’re going to take over the world.”

  
“Classic threat, I know, but I tend to find that it is quite effective,” he said, giving her a quiet grin, something that could have been seen as shy if it had not been for the malice in his eyes. “As for my plan for world domination, that is on a need to know basis.”

  
“That’s just great. Have fun with that. Now what? You can keep me here, but I do have friends that will come looking for me. So feel free to stay, I don’t mind missing school, but someone will come for me. And for my family.”

  
Taking a few steps back, Kalamiu regarded her with a predatory glare, and then began to wander the first floor of her home. His voice echoing through the house, creating an eerie sense of isolation from the rest of the world, “Oh, I won’t keep you here. No, I need you to keep up appearances so that I may continue to operate under the radar. Don’t want any of those pesky law enforcement officers sniffing around for a truant student. That could lead to some awkward questions.”

  
He finished his round of the first floor and circled back to the kitchen. Meeting her eyes, a challenge hidden behind his cool stare, “You will go about your life as normal teenage girl, whatever that role entails, and I will continue to use your house as my base. Your family will be frozen and unfrozen at my will and they will never remember any of this. Try to explain any of this to them and I assure you that they will think you insane and send you away to an asylum. Understood?”

  
Madeline swallowed hard and looked down, her anger melting again and being replaced with unsettling despair. A tiny nod of the head is all Kalamui needed. “Good, eat your dinner and finish up that homework, we wouldn’t want you straying from your little human routine.”

  
A snap of his fingers echoed through her being. Looking up, Kalamui was gone and the sounds of the household had returned. Her restraints had vanished.

  
Brought back to life, her mom turned away from the stove to grab an ingredient from the island and startled.

  
“Madeline! How long had you been home?” she exclaimed. The words fell of deaf ears. Her daughter was still standing in the middle of the kitchen, gazing blankly at tiled floor. “Sweetheart?” she questioned as she approached, gently touching her shoulder, not unlike the gesture she had done to her mother when she first found her.

  
She relaxed into the touch, glad for her mother’s presence to be alive again. Turning to look her mom in the eyes “Oh… ummm… I just, uh, got home. Swim practice canceled due to thunder.”

  
“How nice! Well dinner’s almost ready if you want to go change. We’re having your favorite, chicken parmesan,” her mom chirped brightly, unaware that several moments from her life had been lost and no memory remained of it.

  
Numbly, she gathered her swim bag and trudged up the stairs. Her brother’s dog Annie greeted her at the top of the steps, wagging her tail at the speed of sound, happy to see her. Her brother Garrett sat in a zombie like state in front of the flat screen, distant gunfire popping from the speakers. He didn’t even spare a glance from his game as the weary and stressed shape of his sister shuffled on by.

  
Reaching her room, she let the bag drop by her dresser and was approached her cat Leia who meowed her greeting. “Hey fluff,” she cooed as she extended her hand towards Leia, her cat responding by reaching up on her tiptoes to nestle into her palm. Relaxing at the cat’s soft fur, she retracted her hand and began to strip off her swim suit. Tonight called for a long, hot shower but there was no time between dinner and homework.

  
Settling for a huge t-shirt and her softest PJ pants, she flopped onto her bed and curled around her big stuffed dolphin, trying to absorbed that her entire life now hangs at the mercy of some alien who dared to threaten her family and now continued to terrorize her mind.

  
Her cat joined her on the bed, taking up the motion licking the chlorine from her wet hair. Under the soothing roughness of her cat’s tongue, she began to weigh her options for moving forward. _Telling my family? They would ask if it was some new show on Netflix. My friends would at first laugh and then begin a discussion of if we’re alone in the universe. Which apparently we’re not. That leaves me with either the choice that I’m insane and imagined the whole thing or that really just happened and I’m going to have to adapt to his control. Both are unacceptable but I guess I get to adjust to this now._  
Heaving a deep cleansing breath, her eyes slipped closed, momentarily relieving the building pressure in her head. The peace was soon broken by her mother’s call for dinner and the sounds of her father and brother migrating downstairs.

  
Dragging her form vertical, she balanced on the edge of her bed, preparing a frozen face that conveyed strained happiness and any stress that showed could be brushed off as tiredness from the long day of school and swim practice.

  
Joining her family at the dinner table, she slowly sat down taking in the faces of her family that had no idea that less than a half hour ago they were frozen in their lives, unable to move unless commanded by Kalamiu. The strain of the secret must have shown on her face because her father questioned the tight look.

  
“Just a long day at school. I’m ready to sleep but I have chemistry, so that will be a fun late night,” she responded. The answer was enough to ward him off and they dug into dinner. Despite having not eaten since lunch and the hunger that swimming leaves behind, she picked at her food, the stress of Kalamiu’s visit drowning out the yowls of hunger. Most of the dinner passed in a blur, only providing simple answers to her parents questions about her day.

  
After helping her brother clean up the kitchen, she pulled her massive chem binder and laptop out of her backpack to begin the homework assignment. Pulling up the homework assignment on the website proved to be too much of a strain.

  
Burying her hands in her hair, Madeline slumped over her work, already knowing that tonight would be a waste. _At least tomorrow is Friday. I don’t have any homework due, I will have the weekend to figure something else._

  
Coming to terms that staying up any later would be a waste, she closed her laptop and shoved all of her schoolwork for tomorrow into her backpack.

  
Making one final trudge up the stairs, only stopping briefly in the bathroom to brush her teeth and take out her contacts, she finally collapsed onto the bed, letting the exhaustion of today’s events and hunger from barely eating carry her into a coma-like state of fitful rest.


	2. Let's Meet the Other Side

_Why this house? Why not the one across the street or the next town over or the next state over? Why this house Uncle?_

All of these thoughts stewed in Kerubiel’s head as he watched his uncle walk around the first floor, taking in his gait and the commanding power he held over the house. Kalamiu had frozen the family inside the moment he crossed the threshold and now had the run of the place.

He rolled his shoulders, already stiff from the impossibly long hyperdrive jump his home galaxy of Mantamau to the Milky Way galaxy. Stowing away on his uncle’s compact ship had been as physical wonder of shimmying through the low riding under carriage and dodging various crewmates until he found a hidey-hole in the engine room, behind the main reactor. A bit hot and cramped but better than being found by Kalamiu.

Now his entire body was cramping up from his position behind the pool in the family’s back yard, almost 10 yards away from the massive back windows, but the atmosphere was thinner on this planet so his senses were sharpened.

Kalamiu had now taken up inspecting the devices in the house, testing the light switches, experimenting with the TV, trying to get a grasp of what he had to work with.

_Why is he bothering with the human’s inferior technology? We have an entire ship that could run the whole country with the push of a few butto_ —His train of thought was halted with the slam of a car door. Straining to hear the footsteps, Kerubiel let his eyes slide close to see if he could figure out if the car was next door or at this house.

Instead of a distant slam of a door, the sound came much closer and his eyes flew open to see a teenaged female haul two bags into the house and drop the unceremoniously by the kitchen table with a kick.

Frantically searching for his uncle, he found him in the shadows of the dining room, coolly watching the girl approach her mother. She was now shaking her mother, desperately trying to wake her up.

_It won’t work!_ He wanted to shout out. _Look to your right!_ He wanted to scream. But it was too late, Kalamiu had already revealed himself and engaged the girl. She appeared to be defying him but soon enough she was in restraints, but even then she showed no fear.

Kalamiu had taken a few steps back and started to roam the house again, talking as he went, something about keeping up appearances. _At least he didn’t freeze the girl the instant she entered the house, but why?_ He let out a soft growl of frustration over not knowing any of his uncle’s intentions.

His uncle had circled back to the girl again, his face conveying the threat so perfectly he didn’t need to strain his ears. She would have to cooperate or he would ruin her life, his signature threat on their home world.

All of the fight had drained out of her and she agreed to his terms. Kalamiu allowed a tight smile and snapped his fingers. Life started up once again in the family’s household and Kalamiu was gone.

He watched the girl continue to stare at the floor, even as her mother talked to her. _I’m so sorry you have to go through this. I’m sorry I didn’t get to him in time._ His eyes tracked her weary trek through the house and up the stairs.

Tearing his eyes away from the windows, he turned around and rested his spine against the pool walls. Leaning his head back, he considered the clear heavens, or at least what was able to shine through the polluted atmosphere. A bout of homesickness washed through his body, making miss his room back on Alabarn and comfort his family surrounding him. And yet here he was light-years away watching his uncle already instill terror on Earth.

Letting his eyes slip closed, he took a deep breath and began to suppress his homesickness and tried to focus on what to do next. _I could try and confront my uncle… and then get locked away on the ship and be of no use at all. What about alerting local authorities? And then get locked up for sounding like a crazy person._ Slamming a fist into the ground, the bite of gravel brought his thoughts back to a more rational line of thinking.

_I could shadow her and try and protect her and her family from anymore of his uncle’s… treatment. Yeah, that sounds good and this will allow me to find out more of my uncle’s plans._ Opening his eyes again, he turned around to see that the family had gathered for dinner.

The girl had changed into what looked like sleepwear but even through the big t-shirt, he could still see her drawn tight with the stress of Kalamiu’s visit. She ate very little during their meal and hardly talked to her family.

Afterwards, he saw her dig her hands into her hair and slump over her work, ultimately giving up and abandoning the table for her room.

His heart felt heavy with worry as he snuck away from the now dark house. Plagued by fear and uncertainty, he searched for an empty house to spend the night in. Thankfully there was a house for sale across the street. Here he could rest during the nights and hide from his uncle when ever he visited but still be within his hearing range.

Breaking in was pretty easy, one of the back windows was left unlocked. Tomorrow he would start to learn the family’s schedule and somehow get himself enrolled in the girl’s school so that he could keep an eye on her and watch for any advances by his uncle.

The house was staged with a couch and a few tables. Finding a blanket abandoned deep in one of the closets, Kerubiel settled on the couch stretched out each of his muscles and then relaxed each limb.

Quieting his mind, he sank into a restless state of sleep, haunted by his uncle’s smile and the girl’s defiance.


	3. The First Encounter

Waking up the next day was like trying to pull herself out of the pool after one of Coach’s body-buster sets: impossible but necessary. Her alarm glared the annoying time of 6:15, way too early for any sane person to be awake but completely normal for a swimmer.

Forcing herself up, Madeline sat on the edge of the bed, legs dangling and groped for her phone and glasses in the dark.

Shoving her glasses onto her face, she unlocked her phone, checking the weather for the day, vainly praying for a thunderstorm to cancel practice and allow her a few more hours of sleep.

And she needed them. After last night’s terror, her dreams had been plagued with Kalamiu cold eyes, waking her up often to a racing heartbeat and cold sweat. Dragging her hand down her face, she saw with dismay that the whole weekend called for clear skies, no possibility to escape practice.

Locking her phone, she set it down and stumbled to the bathroom flicking on a few lights as she went to avoid tripping and face planting. She would keep her room spotless for the rest of her life if it meant that this was all just a dream. That seemed like a fair trade; a clean room for no aliens in her life.

Once she used the bathroom, she tied her hair back and put in her contacts. _At least today is only an hour practice, I don’t think I could survive much else._ The rest of her day called for nothing too hard besides a knowledge check in calculus and maybe a pop quiz in anatomy and physiology, nothing she couldn’t just bullshit.

Stripping her useless sleep clothes, she wiggled into her swimsuit and a pair of sweatpants. Randomly tossing a t-shirt and a pair of Nike shorts into her bag along with her Converse, she was ready to grab a quick breakfast downstairs and drag herself out of the house.

Hauling her swim bag and backpack to the car, a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. Whipping around, she flicked her eyes up and down the street, searching for the source of movement.

_Stop it. I know a lot of freaky shit is going on but Kalamiu would approach you directly and definitely not out in the open._ Forcing a deep breath in, she turned to her car again and tossed her bags into the back seat.

Sliding into the driver’s seat, she mentally kicked herself to focus on driving to practice. She may want to die to get out of it, but not at the expense of killing other people. She turned the radio up to try to drown out her paranoid thoughts and wake her up. It failed.

Ten minutes later had her pulling into the parking lot, greeted by her bleary faced teammates and coffee fueled coach.

“Morning Coach,” her automatic greeting called out, right now she was just running on autopilot as she dug out her cap and goggles.

Practice started quickly that day, and instead of groaning with the rest of the team, she welcomed the distraction and the strain of her muscles.

“Look at those buns of steel!” Kaci called to Grace, as she was bending over to get her goggles.

“More like buns of Grace!” Rose, Grace’s sister shouted in reply. Grace responded with a loud “HA!” and then turned away to walk behind the blocks, wiggling her hips in response to the other two.

Instead of joining in with the banter, Madeline’s mind was blank as she wandered over to the pool, her moves disjointed and muted. She waited behind the blocks, staring absently at the water, waiting for a warm up to be issued.

Grace sidled up to her, digging in elbow into her side “What’s up dude? Something wrong?”

She startled at the elbow, shying away, remembering the rough contact between her and Kalamiu last night.

Her eyes were flat as she turned her eyes to Grace, trying to think of an answer. “I was just, uh, up late last night. You know, the chem homework that we have, it takes forever,” she answered, trying to pour a bit of sarcasm into her voice. It ended up sounding harsher than intended so she tried to soften it with a smile that looked more like a grimace.

“Ha, oh that. I haven’t even started that yet. Why did you? It’s not due till after the weekend.” Now falling into the pattern of lying, “I couldn’t sleep last night so I thought I might as well be doing something productive. I’m kinda regretting it now but at least some of it is done.”

Grace took this answer as satisfactory and proceeded to step towards the pool, listening to Coach giving out today’s warm up.

The practice passed in a blur, exhaustion mixing with worry as she mulled over her situation even more. She had been swimming for so long that every stroke was second nature and required no thought at all. The hour passed quickly as practice ended a bit early and all the swimmers started hauling their bags the 100 yards to the school locker rooms.

She flopped onto the pool deck next to Grace and Kaci, some of her stress worn off by the exercise and energetic attitudes of her friends.

“Ready for that meet tomorrow?” Grace said to Kaci.

“Hell no but something’s gonna happen anyway.”

“Aw come on Kac, you got this!” Madeline encouraged, feeling enough like herself again to join in on the conversation. “Your sprints were amazing today! You’re gonna kick some ass tomorrow,” she continued with a smile.

Her friends grinned at her and they all got up to grab their bags.

As she was walked over to her bags, a splitting pain shot through her skull, causing her to grasp her head tightly and kneel over into a tight ball.

_“Have a fun day at school. And don’t forget our little promise. I’ll be watching,”_ a voice echoed in her mind.

As swiftly as the pain had come, it was gone, the pain only a faint throb that faded quickly. She opened her eyes to find Grace, Kaci and her coach surrounding her, hovering but not quite daring to touch her. A cell phone was held aloft and ready in her coach’s hand.

“Madeline. Madeline! Can you hear us?” Kaci shouted, trying to bring her back.

Blinking her eyes against the sun and loud voice, she responded calmly, “Yes, yes, I’m fine. My head just really hurt for a moment. Must have gotten up too fast.”

Although the initial shock of the situation faded, a lingering worry still shielded their eyes.

Their coach stepped forward, “Are you absolutely sure that you’re alright? I can take you out of the meet tomorrow if you’re sick. It would not be a problem; I want you to have a strong season but one missed meet won’t mess you up if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“No! Seriously, I’m fine. I just got up too fast, it was just a big rush of blood,” already getting used to the lies and façade she had to put up, she felt little guilt lying to some of the closest people in her life.

To prove that she was completely fine, she scrambled to her feet, daring the people gathered around her to stand up with her and meet her eyes. Slowly, each person rose from their crouches and took a half a step back, finally letting their worry slip away.

She marched over to her bags, snatched them up and stalked away, not only to prove that she had recovered but also to hide the growing anxiety from new information.

_He’s watching me? How? Is he bluffing? Probably not if he can communicate with me by intense headache and a voice that comes from nowhere. And why is can he speak into my mind? Can he see in there too?_ She tried to shove away some of these thoughts, not wanting to spiral into a state of constant anxiety. She just wanted to get through this day, go home and curl up in bed. That would mean skipping evening practice or the pasta party, but if it meant she might be able to sleep some more, missing out on social opportunities was worth it.

Once she reached the locker rooms, she headed to the shower stalls, hoping to wash away the last 24 hours and ultimately failed. As much as she wanted to close the curtain and slump over and cry from the exhaustion of trying to keep up her normal self, the front needed to continue and no weakness could be shown.

_The only way I’m going to make it through this is if I don’t let him break me. I may let him control my life and family, but there is no way he will make me break._

Squaring her shoulders under the spray of water, Madeline lifted her chin and defiantly scrubbed away every fear and doubt, perhaps foolishly but this was the only way she was going to make it through the day.

Stripping off her suit, she wrapped her towel tightly around her chest, squeezing out any residual fear and left the shower room, heading towards the locker room to change into her school clothes.

Thankfully, she had a good enough autopilot that her t-shirt and shorts didn’t look hideous together and a bit of make up hid the extra tiredness. It was normal for every high schooler to look like zombie, and with several tests coming up, most looked extra zombie like.

She scrutinized herself in the mirror and saw that she was in between those two looks, acceptable enough for someone who was taking five AP classes. She sighed, wishing that makeup could cover up her internal tiredness as well as her external tiredness. She gathered up her makeup, tossed it in her swim bag, and then tossed it all into her locker.

All she could do now was make it through the day, seven hours of a cold, monotone hell and then home for an early night that would hopefully go uninterrupted.

Up first was calculus, the biggest intellectual obstacle of the day. Once the bell that released students to their first class rang, she walked through the school, traversing the halls filled with cliques and loners alike.

The long hall that led to her classroom was only sparsely filled with students lingering outside doors; some not wanting to step into the hour and a half prison and others waiting for the teacher to show up and herd them into the brightly decorated dungeon.

Keeping her head up, exuding a subtle confidence and sense of self-comfort, Madeline walked through the hall, stopping to quickly chat with a few of her friends that dotted the way. As she drew closer to her classroom, she noticed a tall, dark shaped leaning up the wall just past her classroom, dressed in dark pants and a jacket despite the heat of the late Texas fall.

The figure appeared to be preoccupied with what looked like a cell phone, it’s lean body looked relaxed and nondescript.

Her walk slowed, her eyes narrowing as she approached, trying to take in the form and compare it to Kalamiu’s. Is he able to shape shift? It that how he’s going to keep an eye on me?

Her hard won calmness was shattered as the figure looked up, gray eyes meeting her blue ones. Fear similar to last night’s came flooding in again as a shot of adrenaline raced through her system.

Her feet stopped, her just a few feet from the door and the figure, a guy, a few feet past the door. His relaxed posture tightened as he regarded her but instead of the hard look of Kalamiu, his gray eyes looked more like the clouds before a thunderstorm than the cold graphite of Kalamiu’s.

She stared right back, her thoughts racing to try and think of her next move. _Run? Confront?_ In the few seconds that time had stopped, she decided to break the stare and walk into the classroom. At least in there she could sit down and get rid of the fear that she will collapse from the stress of constant surveillance.

Her seat was in the third column and one seat back from the front. She let her bag thud to the ground and she dug out her calc notebook and pencil bag. She let both come to rest on her desk as she folded her arms over them and buried her head in her arms.

Forcing a few more calming breaths for what seemed like the thousandth time that day, she forced the fear to ooze out of her system and her somewhat calm composure to return. If Kalamiu wanted her to act normal, she would act normal. That meant no acknowledgement of his presence and for her to be her normal, sassy, happy self.

Sitting up again, she searched the room to see if he had entered and found that he hadn’t. _Maybe he’s just hear to remind me of my promise and will leave once school starts. There’s no way that he would want to sit through school all day when he’s planning something._ Reassured with this thought, she opened her notebook and began today’s warm-up.

Typically, she was just bad at calculus in general but today she focused all her brainpower on the warm-up, allowing no other thought to make its way past the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus.

More and more of her classmates trickled in as the first bell ticked closer, all chatting and laughing with each other. None mentioned the guy that was lurking outside the door, which fueled her hope that Kalamiu was really just there to check on her and remind her to act normal and then would leave her alone.

She finally relaxed, turning away from her warm-up and towards her friends, asking about plans for their weekends and their Halloween plans.

The first bell finally rang, and with it the guy came stalking in, like he was above the rest of the class. Which made sense considering he was from a more technologically advanced society some where out in the universe, if they had the ability to travel here.

She tracked his movements across the front of the class, watching as he approached the teacher and handed her a piece of paper, presumably verification that he was in the class. Mrs. Sanders took the paper, scanned it and smiled up at him.

She started class with a “Listen up! We have a new student in class,” turning to him and encouraging him to introduce himself.

“Um, hello, I’m Kaleb and I just moved here from, um, Minnesota,” he finally got out. He looked around the classroom, and tried to make eye contact with Madeline but failed miserably as she was staring determinedly down at her desk.

She had focused so intently on her warm-up in front of her, she missed the part when Mrs. Sanders asked him to choose a seat and he ended up sitting right in front of her in the front row.

She mechanically switched over to her notes and looked up to find with a shock that the guy had taken a seat right in front of her. She narrowed her eyes and forced any shock or fear to disappear from her face. Never mind that she had lost a great view of the board but now she had some thing sitting in front of her. She now had to make a decision: confront him at some point or ignore him the best she could.

It was at that moment the guy decided to turn around and she made up her mind that she would ignore him.

“Hey, could I borrow a pen?” he ventured carefully.

She tightened her jaw and her eyes hardened as she looked up at him, throwing all of her frustration and annoyance into her face. Seeing her tight expression, his eyes widened slightly at the ferocity of it and he turned to face the board again.

Sensing that her feelings were clearly expressed to him, she relaxed marginally and focused on the Second Fundamental Theorem of Calculus as best as she could. This torture would drag on for an hour and a half until the bell would ring sending her to the next circle of hell.

Mrs. Sanders droned on and on about how the Theorem created short cuts and miraculously ‘made’ calculus easier, but all that it did was create a growing headache for Madeline that was combined with lack of sleep and constant bombarding of outlandish, or rather outworldish, information.

_Human freezing, telepathy, shape shifting. What’s next, probing?_ She let out a small snort for this one, disbelieving at how unraveled her sharpened mind was becoming. She allowed as small shake of her head to refocus her and hurried to jot down the few lines of notes she missed.

The end of class crept closer and Mrs. Sanders finished the lesson with a final stab of the dry erase marker on the board, declaring that there was no time for a knowledge check today.

The zombified class rallied and began to pack their pencils and notebooks. Slightly reenergized, Madeline packed her things quickly to make a dash for the door to ensure that she was the first out of the room and away from the guy. However noble her efforts, the plan fell apart as she stood grasping the strap of her backpack to swing it on her back and take a step forward past the guy, he had decided to stand at the same time and face her, causing her to crash against his chest and stumble back half of a step.

_Shit!_ The thought raced through her head as her center of gravity shifted off balance, but instead of falling onto one of her unsuspecting class mates, the guy’s hand lashed out and scooped through the crook of her elbow and secured itself across the mid potion of her back, effectively steadied her, _pressing_ her against his chest.

Her heart beat rapidly against her ribcage as her stomach returned to its proper place and she realized the intimacy of her situation. She felt his hand on her back like a white hot iron and experienced a rush of embarrassment and annoyance. She glared up at the owner of the offending hand, a silent demand to be released.

He met her eyes and was again shocked at fierceness that was etched into her eyes. No matter how gallant his gesture was, it was still unwelcomed and she would have rather fallen than be saved by him. His eyes widen in apology and he gracefully stepped back two steps, effectively removing his hand from her back and creating the much wanted space.

The entire ordeal had taken less that ten seconds and went largely unnoticed by the class, all the other were wrapped up talking about their weekend plans to notice the new guy’s lightning fast reflexes.

Madeline remained where she was and stood stiffly as she carried on with swinging her backpack over her shoulder, acting as if nothing had happened. The only trace of it was the blush creeping up her neck and into her ears as she focused on a point on the ground.

Peeking up, she saw that he was staring at with a guarded expression a few paces away. She closed her eyes momentarily and released a small sigh through her nose.

Tilting her head back up again, she met his eyes, “Thank you, I guess.”

He rolled his shoulders in a small shrug and backed away further to allow her out of the aisle. She accepted his gesture with a tiny nod and slipped past the desks and joined her friends at the front door, still keeping her eyes down.

She came to a stop on the edge of her friend group and tugged on her hair to release it from its entrapment under the straps. She tried to focus on whatever her friend Ava was gabbing on about but all of her attention was still held by the guy’s actions and how his hand had left a mental burn on her back.

So caught up in her own train of thought, she missed his first attempt to grab her attention, a small clearing of his throat but Ava hadn’t missed it.

“Hey, you’re Kaleb right?” her question made Madeline’s head snap up and whip around to stare in the direction at which the question was pointed, just behind her right shoulder.

‘Kaleb’ had followed her to the door, ignoring any hints that she did not want to have anything to do with him. He pointingly ignored the stare and focused on Ava’s question. “Yeah, I just moved to the area with my uncle.”

“Huh, in the middle of your senior year? That’s rough,” Kaleb nodded in affirmation and she carried on, “Well I’m Ava and Miss. Rude here is Madeline,” giving her a small stab in the arm to break her out of her spell of staring intensely at his face.

He gave a low chuckle and turned his attention to her, “We’ve already met, she’s not too keen sharing her pens as I have learned.”

With that jab, she narrowed her eyes and was saved a response by the bell ringing and the crush of students forcing everyone through the door. Madeline was forced to turn her glare away from him and concentrated on not ramming into anyone on the way out.

Once in the hallway, she utilized her long legs and well developed skill of navigating school hallways to create distance between her and the guy. _Let’s see if ‘Kaleb’ can keep up with us lowly high school students._

But luck was just not on her side-the last 24 hours was a testament to that--as Kaleb easily followed her path and fell in step at her side.

“So that was a fun class, next I’ve got Gable in Anatomy and Physiology and I’m going to guess that’s what you have next too,” he said with a sly glance to the side to see if he could draw out more of her fiery spirit, his apprehension of interacting with her sliding away as he saw her blush creep back up again.

She let out a sharp huff and resisted the urge to stop in the middle of the hallway just to glare at him again, instead redoubling her efforts to weave through writhing bodies and lose him in the crowd. Which would have been impossible anyway because he easily stood at six foot four, much taller than the average height of the student body, and she at five foot ten equally stood out for being one of the tallest girls in the surrounding throng of people.

He idly chatted on about the calculus lesson that was just force fed to them pointing out the several mistakes that the teacher made and how the entire theorem was unnecessary because the end of the world was imminent.

That got her to finally stop and turn to him with an incredulous look on her face. “Kidding,” he amended, “mostly.”

Letting out another huff, her shoulders slumped in defeat as she let her annoyance with him go and her curiosity seep in.

“What do you want from me Kaleb? Or should I say Kalamiu. Really! You could have picked a better, not so obvious name.”

Now is was his turn for his expression to darken at the mention of his uncle’s name. He bared his teeth in a slight snarl, “I am _not_ my uncle and do not mistake me for him again. I refuse to mistaken for him. He stands for everything I don’t and creates terror where he shouldn’t.”

His sudden, violent outburst caused her to flinch away from his words, causing fear in her face and making him inadvertently just like Kalamiu. He saw this change in her features and relaxed apologetically.

“I’m sorry, he just is a sore spot for me,” he sighed, rubbing that back of his neck. “Let’s start over, I’m Kerubiel and I’m here to protect you and your family as much as I can.”

A full fifteen seconds inched by as she was yet again staring at him with an incredulous look on her face. To the point where Kerubiel was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable and began to shift back and forth.

“AHAHAHA!” she burst out suddenly and continued with this short, slightly hysterical, barking laugh, bending over at the waist, clutching her sides. She carried on like this for a good twenty seconds and Kerubiel had no choice but to stand there and wait until she was done. He tried to ignore the odd stares they were culminating from passing students.

The fit subsided and she straightened, wiping a stray tear from her cheek. “Sorry, it’s just so many insane things have happened over the last 24 hours and now I have my own personal terrorist’s nephew standing in front of me claiming that he’s going to protect me from his uncle’s seemingly unstoppable wrath and the end of the world. Sorry, but that’s a load of bullshit and it would be great if you could just run back to him and say that your cover is blown and that you now have a less than zero chance of me trusting you. Have a great day.” And with that she turned on her heel and determinedly marched onward through the now thinned crowd to her next class.

Bewildered at her monologue, he stood there in a daze gazing at her shrinking backside until it turned a corner and was gone.


End file.
